
Book 



Copyright In?. 



COHffiaGKT DEPOSIT. 



SOMEWHERE BEYOND 

A Year Book of Francis Thompson 



SOMEWHERE BEYOND 

A Year Book of 
Francis Thompson 

ft 

Compiled by 

Mary Carmel Haley- 




New York 

E, P. Dutton & Company 

681 Fifth Avenue 






COPYRIGHT, 1917, 

E. P. BUTTON & COMPANY 



DEC -5 1917 



Printed in the United States of America 



©CI.A479380 



s^ 



i 



THESE GLEANINGS 
ARE LOVINGLY DEDICATED TO 

MY MOTHER 



The Compiler desires to express 
her gratitude to Messrs. John 
Lane Company, the owners of 
the copyright of the text of 
Francis Thompson's works, for 
permission to make use of the 
extracts collected in this volume. 



SOMEWHERE BEYOND 

A Year Book of Francis Thompson 



JANUARY 



JANUARY 1ST 

Not without fortitude I wait 
The dark magestical ensuit 
Of destiny, nor peevish rate 
Calm-knowledged Fate. 

— From the Night of Forebeing 

JANUARY 2ND 

What heart could have thought you? — 
Past our devisal 
(O filigree petal!) 

— To a SnoW' flake 

JANUARY 3D 

Starry amourist, starward gone, 

Thou art — what thou didst gaze upon! 

— A Dead Astronomer 

[3] 



[4] 



JANUARY 4TH 

Stoop, stoop; for thou dost fear 
The nettle's wrathful spear. 
So slight 
Art thou of might ! 

Rise ; for heaven hath no frown 
When thou to thee pluck'st down, 
Strong clod I 
The neck of God. _jriy Saint 

JANUARY 5TH 

God was my shaper. 

Passing surmisal, 

He hammered, He wrought me. 

From curled silver vapour, 

To lust of His mind : — 

— To a Snow-flake 



JANUARY 6th 

He measureth world's pleasure, 
World's ease, as Saints might measure; 
For hire 
Just love entire. 

— To the Dead Cardinal 

JANUARY 7TH 

So flaps my helpless sail. 
Bellying with neither gale, 
Of Heaven 
Nor Orcus even. 

— To the Dead Cardinal 

JANUARY 8th 

Halts by me that footfall; 
Is my gloom, after all. 
Shade of His hand, outstretched caressingly? 

— The Hound of Heaven 

[5] 



JANUARY 9TH 

The windy trammel of her dress, 

Her blown locks, took my soul in mesh. 

— Grace of the Way 
<:> -*;:> 

JANUARY lOTH 

Yet woe to him that from his burden flees, 
Crushed in the fall of what he cast away. 

— Ode to the Setting Sun 

<:;> <^ 
JANUARY iiTH 

Thou could'st not have thought me! 

So purely, so palely, 

Tinily, frailly, 

Insculped and embossed. 

With His hammer of wind, 

And His graver of frost. 

— To a Snow-flake 

[6] 



JANUARY 12TH 
Which sets, to measure of man's feet, 
No alien Tree for trysting-place ; 
And who can read, may read the sweet 
Direction in his Lady's face. 

— Grace of the Way 

JANUARY 13TH 
Virtue may unlock hell, or even 
A sin turn in the wards of Heaven, 

— Epilogue to ''A Judgement in Heaven' 

JANUARY 14TH 
As a nymph's carven head sweet water drips, 
For others oozing so the cool delight 
Which cannot steep her stiffened mouth of 

stone — 
Thy nescient lips repeat maternal strains. 

— To a Child Repeating He/ Mother's Verses 

[7] 



JANUARY 15TH 
Eve no gentlier lays her cooling cheek 
On the burning brow of the sick earth, 

Than thy shadow soothes this weak 
And distempered being of mine. 

— The Mirage 

JANUARY i6th 
I have no angels left 
Now, Sweet, to pray to; 
Where you have made your shrine 
They are away to. _^ Carrier Song 

JANUARY 17TH 
Who know not love from amity, 
Nor my reported self from me; 
A fair fit gift is this, meseems. 
You give — this withering flower of dreams. 

— The Poppy 

[8] 



JANUARY i8th 
Breathe, Lord Paraclete, 
To a bubbled crystal meet — 
Breathe, Lord Paraclete — 

Crystal soul for Viola. 

— The Making of Viola 
<:> ^:> 

JANUARY 19TH 

But, if one little casement parted wide. 
The gust of His approach would clash it to. 
Fear wist not to evade, as Love wist to pur- 
S^^* — The Hound of Heaven 

JANUARY 20TH 

Then 
Eden's lopped tree shall shoot again : 
For who Christ's eyes shall miss, with those 
Eyes for evident nuncios? 

— The After Woman 

[9] 



JANUARY 2 1ST 
When at the first those tidings did they 

bring, 
My heart turned troubled at the ominous 

thing : 
Though well may such a title him endower, 
For whom a poet's prayer implores a poet's 

power. —To My Godchild 

JANUARY 22ND 
When Thou wast so little, say, 
Couldst Thou talk Thy Father's way? 

— Ex Ore Infantium 

JANUARY 23D 

In a little dust, in a little dust, 

Earth, thou reclaim'st us, who do all our 

lives 
Find of thee but Egyptian villeinage. 

— An Anthem of Earth 

[10] 



JANUARY 24TH 

Our gazes for sufficing limits know 

The firmament above, your face below. 

— Epilogue to the Poefs Sitter 

JANUARY 25TH 

Love and love's beauty only hold their revels 
In life's familiar, penetrable levels; 
What of its ocean-floor? 
I dwell there evermore. _Poet and Anchorite 

JANUARY 26th 

But you, who love nor know at all 

The diverse chambers in Love's guest-hall, 

Where some rise early, few sit long: 

In how differing accents hear the throng 

His great Pentecostal tongue. 7^^ Poppy 

[11] 



JANUARY 27TH 
Thou art of Him a type memorial. 
Like Him thou hang'st in dreadful pomp of 

blood 
Upon thy Western rood; 
And His stained brow did veil like thine to- 
night, 
Yet lift once more Its light. 

— Ode to the Setting Sun 

JANUARY 28th 
If, while you keep the vigils of the night, 
For your wild tears make darkness all too 

bright. 
Some lone orb through your lonely window 

peeps. 
As it played lover over your sweet sleeps. 
Think it a golden crevice in the sky. 
Which I have pierced but to behold you by ! 

— To My Godchild 

[12] 



JANUARY 29TH 
Nothing begins, and nothing ends. 
That is not paid with moan; 
For we are born in other's pain, 

And perish in our own. j^^ Daisy 

^^ <::> 
JANUARY 30TH 
I knew what chosen child was there in place ! 
I knew there might no brows be, save of one, 
With such Hesperian fulgence compassed. 
Which in her moving seemed to wheel about 

her head. _^ child's Kiss 

<::> -^^ 

JANUARY 3 1ST 

With faint and painful pulses was I lying; 

Not yet discerning well 

If I had 'scaped, or were an icicle. 

Whose thawing is its dying. 

— The Omen 

[13] 



FEBRUARY 



FEBRUARY isx 

The breaths of kissing night and day 
Were mingled in the Eastern Heaven: 
Throbbing with unheard melody 
Shook Lyra all its star-chord seven: 

— Dream- Tryst 

FEBRUARY 2nd 
Blood and water from His side 
Gush; in thee the streams divide; 
From thine eyes the one doth start, 

But the other from thy heart. 

— St. Monica 

FEBRUARY 30 

O earth, unchilded, widowed Earth, so long 
Lifting in patient pine and ivy-tree 
Mournful belief and steadfast prophecy, 

— From the Night of Forebeing 

[17] 



FEBRUARY 4th 

When doom puffed out the stars, we might 

have said, 
It would decline its heavy head. 
And see the world to bed. _a Fallen Yew 

FEBRUARY 5th 

And she was gone, my sole, my Fair, 

Ah, sole my Fair, was gone! 

Methinks, throughout the world 'twere right 

I had been sad alone ; 

And yet, such sweet in all things' heart. 

And such sweet in my own I 

.^ ^^ —After Her Going 

FEBRUARY 6th 

Woe is me, 
And all our chants but chaplet some decay, 
As mine this vanishing — nay, vanished Day. 

— Ode to the Setting Sun 

[18] 



FEBRUARY yxH 

How praise the woman, who but know the 

spirit? 
How praise the colour of her eyes, uncaught 
While they were coloured with her varying 

thought? ^Her Portrait 

FEBRUARY 8th 

Across the margent of the world I fled, 
And troubled the gold gateways of the stars. 
Smiting for shelter on their clanged bars; 

— The Hound of Heaven 

FEBRUARY qth 

Thou didst draw to thy side 

Thy young Auroral bride. 

And lift her veil of night and mystery; 

— Ode to the Setting Sun 

[19] 



FEBRUARY ioth 

And she came forth upon the trepidant air, 
In vesture unimagined-fair, 
Woven as woof of flag-lilies ; 
And, curdled as of flag-lilies. 
The vapour at the feet of her; 

And a haze about her tinged in fainter wise ; 

As if she had trodden the stars in press. 

Till the gold wine spurted over her dress, 

— A Corymbus for Autumn 

FEBRUARY iith 

Hark to the Jubilate of the bird 

For them that found the dying way to life ! 

— From the Night of Forebeing 

FEBRUARY 12th 

The day is drenched with thee ; 

— The Omen 

[20] 



FEBRUARY 13TH 

The water-wraith that cries 

From those eternal sorrows of thy pictured 
eyes 

Entwines and draws me down their sound- 
less intricacies! 

— Before Her Portrait in Youth 

FEBRUARY 14TH 

Those shaken mists a space unsettle, then 
Round the half glimpsed turrets slowly wash 
again. 
But not ere him who summoneth 
I first have seen, enwound 
With glooming robes purpureal, cypress- 
crowned ; 
His name I know, and what his trumpet 
S^lth. — Yhe Hound of Heaven 

[21] 



FEBRUARY 15TH 
Yea, in that ultimate heart's occult abode 
To lie as in an oubliette of God, 
Or as a bower untrod, 

Built by a secret Lover for His Spouse; — 

— A Fallen Yew 

FEBRUARY i6th 
You have loved me. Fair, three lives — or 

days: 
'Twill pass with the passing of my face. 
But where I go, your face goes too, 
To watch lest I play false to you. 

^ ^ —The Poppy 

FEBRUARY 17TH 
Wild Dryad \ ^ ^ ^ 
Who wear'st thy femineity 
Light as entrailed blossoms, that shalt find 
It erelong silver shackles unto thee. 

— The Child-Woman 

[22] 



FEBRUARY i8th 

And ah, we poets, I misdoubt. 

Are little more than thou! 
We speak a lesson taught we know not how, 
And what it is that from us flows 

The hearer better than the utterer knows. 

— To a Child Heard Repeating Her Mother s 

Verses 

FEBRUARY 19TH 
In skies that no man sees to move 

Lurk untumultuous vortices of power, 

— Contemplation 

FEBRUARY 2oth 

Whatever singing-robe thou wear 
Has the Paradisal air; 
And some gold feather it has kept 
Shows what Floor it lately swept. 

— To a Poet Breaking Silence 

[23] 



FEBRUARY 2ist 
I think thy girlhood's watchers must 
Have took thy folded songs on trust, 
And felt them, as one feels the stir 
Of still lightnings in the hair. 
When conscious hush expects the cloud 
To speak the golden secret loud 
Which tacit air is privy to; 

— To a Poet Breaking Silence 

FEBRUARY 22nd 
She has chidden in a pet 
All her stars from her; 
Now they wander loose and sigh 
Through the turbid blue, 
Now they wander, weep, and cry — 
Yea, and I too — 
''Where are you, sweet July, 
Where are you?'' —July Fugitive 

[24] 



FEBRUARY 23D 

This drooping flower of youth thou lettest 

fall 
I, faring in the cockshut-light, astray, 
Find on my 'lated way, 
And stoop, and gather for memorial, 
And lay it on my bosom, and make it mine. 
— Before Her Portrait in Youth 

FEBRUARY 24TH 

The heavens renew their innocence 

And morning state 

But by thy sacrament communicate; 

— Orient Ode 

FEBRUARY 25TH 

Our longings are contented with the skies, 
Contented with the heaven, and your eyes. 

— Epilogue to the Poet's Sitter 

[25] 



FEBRUARY 26th 
She wears that body but as one indues 
A robe, half careless, for it is the use; 
Although her soul and it so fair agree, 
We sure may, unattaint of heresy, 
Conceit it might the soul's begetter be. 

^^ ^^ — Her Portrait 

FEBRUARY 27TH 
Who dug night's jewels from their vaulty 

mine 
To dower her, past an eastern wizard's 
dreams. 

— Ode to the Setting Sun 

FEBRUARY 28th 
For all the past, read true, is prophecy, 
And all the firsts are hauntings of some Last 
And all the springs are flash-lights of one 
oprmg. — From the Night of Forebeing 

[26] 



FEBRUARY 29TH 
Like fierce beasts that a common thirst makes 

brothers, 
We draw together to one hid dark lake ; 
In a little peace, in a little peace. 
We drain with all our burthens of dishonour 
Into the cleansing sands o' the thirsty grave. 

— An Anthem of Earth 



[27] 



MARCH 



MARCH 1ST 

Reintegrated are the heavens and earth ! 

From sky to sod, 

The world's unfolded blossom smells of 

God. 

— From the Night of Forebeing 

MARCH 2ND 

As sap foretastes the spring; 
As Earth ere blossoming 

Thrills 
With far daffodils, 

— To the Dead Cardinal of Westminster 

MARCH 3D 

I hang 'mid men my needless head, 

And my fruit is dreams, as theirs is bread ; 

— The Poppy 

[31] 



MARCH 4TH 

The hours I tread ooze memories of thee, 

Sweet, 

— The Omen 
<:> ^> 

MARCH 5TH 

How should I gauge what beauty is her dole, 
Who cannot see her countenance for her soul, 

— Her Portrait 

MARCH 6th 
Unbanner your bright locks, — advance 
Girl, their gilded puissance, 

— The After Woman 

MARCH 7TH 

Then, sweet blushet! whenas he. 
The destined paramount of thy universe. 
Who has no worlds to sigh for, ruling thee, 
— A Foretelling of the Child's Husband 

[32] 



MARCH 8th 

She went her unremembering way, 
She went, and left in me 
The pang of all the partings gone. 
The partings yet to be. 

— Daisy 

MARCH 9TH 

A child and man paced side by side, 
Treading the skirts of eventide ; 
But between the clasp of his hand and hers 
Lay, felt not, twenty withered years. 

— The Poppy 

MARCH lOTH 

The very shades on hill, and tree, and plain. 
Where they have fallen doze, and where 
they doze remain. 

— Contemplation 

[33] 



MARCH iiTH 
She kept her meditative paces slow. 

— Before Her Portrait in Youth 
<:^ <:> 

MARCH 12TH 
Yea, thy gazes, blissful lover, 
Make the beauties thev discover! 

— Orient Ode 

MARCH 13TH 
Is it the all-severest mode 
To see ourselves with the eyes of God? 
God rather grant, at His assize, 
He see us not with our own eyes I 

— Epilogue to ''A Judgement in Heaven' 
^^:> ^o- 

MARCH 14TH 
Is it not thou that dost the tulip drape, 
And huest the daffodilly? 

— Ode to the Setting Sun 

[34] 



MARCH 15TH 

Pierce where thou wilt the springing though, 

in me, 
And there thy pictured countenance lies 

enfurled, 

As in the cut fern lies the imaged tree. 

— The Mirage 

MARCH i6th 
Ah! must — 

Designer infinite! — 
Ah ! must Thou char the wood ere Thou 
canst limn with it? 

— The Hound of Heaven 

-^^ <^ 
MARCH 17TH 

O Tree of many branches ! One thou hast 

Thou barest not, but grafted'st on thee. 

— Lines to W. M. 

[35] 



MARCH i8tm 
Anchorite, who did'st dwell 
With all the world for cell, 

My soul 
Round me doth roll. 
A sequestration bare — 

— To the Dead Cardinal of Westminster 
<:> -^^ 

MARCH 19TH 
What said'st thou, Astronomer, 
When thou did'st discover her? 
When thy hand its tube let fall, 
Thou found'st the fairest star of all ! 

— A Dead Astronomer 

MARCH 20TH 
And all things stilled were as a maid 
Sweet with a single kiss. 

— After Her Going 

[36] 



MARCH 2 1ST 

O nothing, in this corporal earth of man, 
That to the imminent heaven of his high soul 
Responds with colour and with shadow, can 
Lack correlated greatness. 

— Correlated Greatness 
<:> <:> 

MARCH 22ND 

Cast wide the folding doorways of the East, 
For now is light increased! 
And the wind-besomed chambers of the air. 
See they be garnished fair; 

— From the Night of Forebeing 

MARCH 23D 
Earth ^ ^ ^ 

Gives back to thee in sanctities of flower; 

And holy odours do her bosom invest, 

That sweeter grows for being prest : 

— Orient Ode 

[37] 



MARCH 24TH 
I said to dawn, Be sudden; to eve, Be soon; 
With thy young skiey blossoms heap me over 

From this tremendous Lover! 
Float thy vague veil about me, lest He see! 

— The Hound of Heaven 
<:> <^ 

MARCH 25TH 
Then commanded and spake to me 
He who framed all things that be; 
And my Maker entered through me, 
In my tent His rest took He. 

— Assumpta Maria 
<:> <::> 

MARCH 26th 
Lo! He standeth. Spouse and Brother, 
I to Him, and He to me, 
Who upraised me where my mother 
Fell, beneath the apple-tree. 

— Assumpta Maria 

[38] 



MARCH 27TH 
The carpet was let down 
(With golden moultings strown) 

For you 
Of the angels' blue. 

— To the Dead Cardinal of Westminster 

MARCH 28th 
How to the petty prison could she shrink 
Of femineity? — Nay, but I think 
In a dear courtesy her spirit would 
Woman assume, for grace to womanhood. 

— Her Portrait 

MARCH 29TH 

From stones and poets you may know, 

Nothing so active is, as that which least 

seems so. 

— Contemplation 

[39] 



MARCH 30TH 
Where is the threne o' the sea? 
And why not dirges thee 
The wind, that sings to himself as he makes 
stride 

Lonely and terrible on the Andean height? 

— Ode to the Setting Sun 

MARCH 3 1ST 
Even so, O Cross ! thine is the victory. 
Thy roots are fast within our fairest fields j 
Brightness may emanate in Heaven from 

thee, 
Here thy dread, symbol only shadow yields. 

— Ode to the Setting Sun 



[40] 



APRIL 



APRIL 1ST 

Short arm needs man to reach to Heaven, 
So ready is Heaven to stoop to him. 

— Grace of the Way 

APRIL 2ND 

I do hear 

From the revolving year 
A voice which cries; 
"All dies; 

Lo, how all dies! O seer, 
And all things too arise; 
All dies, and all is born; 
But each resurgent morn, behold, more near 
the Perfect Morn." 

— From the Night of Forebeing 

[43] 



APRIL 3D 

For lo, into her house 

Spring is come home with her world-wan- 
dering feet, 
And all things are made young with young 
desires ; 

— From the Night of Forebeing 
^^:> <^ 

APRIL 4TH 
Ah! is Thy love indeed 
A weed, albeit an amaranthine weed. 
Suffering no flowers except its own to 
mount ? —The Hound of Heaven 

APRIL 5TH 
She passed, — O brave, sad, lovingest, tender 

thing ! — 
And of her own scant pittance did she give, 
That I might eat and live : _^ Child's Kiss 

[44] 



APRIL 6th 

And while she feels the heavens lie bare, — 
She only talks about her hair. 

— The Way of a Maid 

APRIL 7TH 

When a grown woman dies, 

You know we think unceasingly 

What things she said, how sweet, how wise; 

And these do make our misery. 

— To Monica Thought Dying 

APRIL 8th 

Wheeling angels, past espial. 
Danced her down with sound of viol; 
Wheeling angels, past espial, 
Descanting on, ''Viola." 

— The Making of Viola 

[45] 



APRIL 9TH 

And joy, like a mew sea-rocked apart, 

Tossed on the wave of his troubled heart. 

— The Poppy 
^> o 

APRIL lOTH 

From the wise heavens I half shall smile to 

see 
How little a world, which owned you, 

needed me. 

— To My Godchild 

APRIL iiTH 

And I remembered not 

The subtle sanctities which dart 

From childish lips' unvalued precious brush, 

Nor how it makes the sudden lilies push 

Between the loosening fibres of the heart. 

— A Child's Kiss 

[46] 



APRIL 12TH 

And did Thy Mother at the night 

Kiss Thee, and fold the clothes in right? 

— Ex Ore Infantium 

APRIL 13TH 

Does the fish soar to find the ocean, 

The eagle plunge to find the air — 

That we ask of the stars in motion 

If they have rumour of thee there? 

— In No Strange Land 

APRIL 14TH 

And power is man's, 

With that great word of, ''wait," 

To still the sea of tears, 

And shake the iron heart of Fate. 

— From the Night of Forebeing 

[47] 



APRIL 15TH 
Sat, green-amiced and bare-footed, 
Spring, amid her minstrelsy; 

— A Child's Kiss 

APRIL i6th 
Stone of the Law indeed, 
Thine own self couldst thou read 
Thy bliss 
Within thee is. —Any Saint 

APRIL 17TH 
To feel thyself and be 
His dear nonentity — 

Caught 
Beyond human thought. —Any Saint 

APRIL i8th 
Wonder and sadness are the lot of change: 

— To the Sinking Sun 

[48] 



APRIL 19TH 

Thou canst not have forgotten all 
That it feels like to be small: 
And Thou know'st I cannot pray- 
To Thee in my father's way — 

— Ex Ore Infantium 
<^ <:^ 

APRIL 20TH 

Or if that language yet with us abode 
Which Adam in the garden talked with 
God! 

— Her Portrait 

APRIL 2 1ST 

On Ararat there grew a vine, 
When Asia from her bathing rose; 
Our first sailor made a twine 
Thereof for his prefiguring brows. 

— The Mistress of Vision 

[49] 



APRIL 22ND 

On Golgotha there grew a thorn 
Round the long-prefigured Brows. 

Mourn, O mourn! 
For the vine have we the spine? Is this all 
the Heaven allows? 

— The Mistress of Vision 
<:> <:> 

APRIL 23D 

Oh, pardon, that I testify of thee 
What thou couldst never speak, nor others 
be! 

— Epilogue to the Poefs Sitter 

APRIL 24TH 

There regent Melancholy wide controls; 
There Earth- and Heaven-Love play for 

aureoles ; 

— Her Portrait 

[50] 



APRIL 25TH 
'1 take you to my inmost heart, my true!'' 
AH, fool ! but there is one heart you 
Shall never take him to! 

— A Fallen Yew 
<:> -<:> 

APRIL 26th 
The hold that falls not when the town is 

got, 
The heart's heart, whose immured plot 
Hath keys yourself keep not! 

— A Fallen Yew 

APRIL 27TH 
(For, though I knew His love Who fol- 
lowed, 
Yet was I sore adread 
Lest, having Him, I must have naught be- 
side) ; 

— The Hound of Heaven 

[51] 



APRIL 28th 

Fair, I had a dream of thee, 

— The After Woman 

APRIL 29TH 

In nescientness, in nescientness. 

Mother, we put these fleshly lendings on 

Thou yield'st to thy poor children; took 

thy gift 
Of life, which must, in all the after days 
Be craved again with tears, — 

— An Anthem of Earth 

APRIL 30TH 

Thou sway'st thy sceptred beam 

O'er all delight and dream; 

Beauty is beautiful but in thy glance : 

— Ode to the Setting Sun 

[52] 



MAY 



MAY 1ST 

'Tis a vision: 

Yet the greeneries Elysian 

He has known in tracts afar ; 

— The Mirage 

MAY 2ND 

And all you birds on branches, lave your 
mouths with May, 

— A Child's Kiss 

MAY 3D 

She, who scorns my dearest care ta'en, 

An uncertain 
Shadow of the sprite of May. 

— Poet and Anchorite 



MAY 4TH 

Therefore, O tender Lady, Queen Mary, 
Thou gentleness that dost enmoss and 

drape 
The Cross's rigorous austerity, 
Wipe thou the blood from wounds which 
needs must gape. 

— Ode to the Setting Sun 
<:> «<;> 

MAY 5TH 

But on a day whereof I think. 
One shall dip his hand to drink 
In that still water of thy soul, 

— A Foretelling of the Child's Husband 

MAY 6th 

I sit, and from the fragrance dream the 

flower. 

— Before Her Portrait in Youth 

[56] 



MAY 7TH 

Ah ! let the sweet birds of the Lord 
With Earth's waters make accord; 

— To a Poet Breaking Silence 

MAY 8th 

I have no Heaven left 
To weep my wrongs to; 
Heaven, when you went from us, 
Went with my songs too. 

— A Carrier Song 

MAY 9TH 

You, if my soul be auger, you 

Shall — O what shall you not. Sweet, do? 

— The After Woman 

[SI] 



MAY lOTH 

He lives detached days; 
He serveth not for praise; 
For gold 
He is not sold; 

— To the Dead Cardinal 

<^ <::> 

MAY iiTH ' 

Then there came past 

A child; like thee, a spring-flower; but a 

flower 
Fallen from the budded coronal of Spring, 

— A Child's Kiss 

MAY 12TH 

Bubbling deliciousness of thee arises 
From sudden places, 

— The Omen 

[58] 



MAY 13TH 

And with her magic singing kept she — 
Mystical in music — 
That garden of enchanting 
In visionary May: 

— The Mistress of Vision 

MAY 14TH 

O Thou most dear ! 

Who art thy sex's complex harmony 

— The Child-Woman 

MAY 15TH 

To thee may love draw near 
Without one blame or fear, 
Unchidden save by his humility; 

— The Child-Woman 

[59] 



MAY i6th 

Where the thistle lifts a purple crown 

Six foot out of the turf, 

And the harebell shakes on the windy hill — 

O the breath of the distant surf ! — 

— The Daisy 
<:::>' <:> 

MAY 17TH 

On her mouth museful sweet — 
(Even as the twin lips meet) 
Did thoughts and sadness greet: 

— Before Her Portrait in Youth 

MAY i8th 

The angels keep their ancient places; — 
Turn but a stone, and start a wing! 
'Tis ye, 'tis your estranged faces, 
That miss the many-splendoured thing. 

— In No Strange Land 

[60] 



MAY igxH 

Gird, and thou shalt unbind; 
Seek not, and thou shalt find; 
To eat. 
Deny thy meat; 

MAY 20TH 



-Any Saint 



Here every eve thou stretchest out 
Untarnishable wing, 
And marvellously bring'st about 
Newly an olden thing; 

— To the Sinking Sun 

MAY 2 1ST 

The drift of pinions, would we hearken, 
Beats at our own clay-shuttered doors. 

— In No Strange Land 

[61] 



MAY 22ND 

The chambers in the house of dreams 

Are fed with so divine an air, 

That Time's hoar wings grow young therein, 

And they who walk there are most fair. 

— Dream-Tryst 

MAY 23D 

It is the falling star that trails the light, 
It is the breaking wave that hath the might. 

— Ode to the Setting Sun 

MAY 24TH 

Sole fully blest, to feel 
God whistle thee at heel; 
Drunk up 
As a dew-drop, 

[62] 



— Any Saint 



MAY 25TH 
So, then, she looked (I say). 
And so her front sunk down 
Heavy beneath the poet's iron crown: 

— Before Her Portrait in Youth 

MAY 26th 
Teach us but, to grace our prayers, 

Such divinity of tears, — 

— St. Monica 

MAY 27TH 
Shake the lilies till their scent 

Over-drip their rims, 

— July Fugitive 
^> <:^ 

MAY 28th 

The river has not any care 

Its passionless water to the sea to bear; 

— Contemplation 

[63] 



MAY 29TH 

Caved magically under magic seas ; 
Caved dreamlessly beneath the dreamful 
seas. 

— The Child-Woman 

MAY 30TH 

Oh, but the heavenly grammar did I hold 
Of that high speech which angels' tongues 
turn gold! 

— Her Portrait 

MAY 3 1ST 

So should her deathless beauty take no 

wrong, 
Praised in her own great kindred's fit and 

cognate tongue. 

— Her Portrait 

[64] 



JUNE 



JUNE 1ST 

Who made the splendid rose 
Saturate with purple glows; 
Cupped to the marge with beauty; 

— Ode to the Setting Sun 
<:^ <:> 

JUNE 2ND 

Although my heart hath beat the loud ad- 
vance, 
I have recoiled before a challenging glance, 

— Her Portrait 

JUNE 3D 

Give me song, as She is, new, 
Earth should turn in time thereto ! 

— The After Woman 

[67] 



JUNE 4TH 

Now unto thee 

The plenitude of the glories thou didst sow 

Is garnered up in prosperous memory; 

— The Victorian Ode 
<^ <^ 

JUNE 5TH 

How graciously thou wear'st the yoke 
Of use that does not fail ! 

— To the Sinking Sun 

JUNE 6th 

Cast a star therein to drown, 
Like a torch in cavern brown, 
Sink a burning star to drown 
Whelmed in eyes of Viola. 

— The Making of Viola 

[68] 



JUNE 7TH 

My song I do but hold for you in trust, 
I ask you but to blossom from my dust. 

— To My Godchild 

JUNE 8th 

Hadst Thou ever any toys, 

Like us little girls and boys? 

And didst Thou play in Heaven with all 

The angels, that were not too tall ? 

— Ex Ore Infantium 
<::> <:> 

JUNE 9TH 

Therefore I kissed in thee 
The heart of Childhood, so divine for me ; 
And her, through what sore ways. 
And what unchildish days, 
Borne from me now, as then, a trackless- 
fugitive. —A Child's Kiss 

[69] 



JUNE lOTH 

Under my ruined passions, fallen and sere, 
The wild dreams stir, like little radiant 
girls 

— Poet and Anchorite 

JUNE iiTH 

For ended is the Mystery Play, 
When Christ is life, and you the way; 

— The After Woman 

JUNE 12TH 

Mate of the earthquake and thunders vol- 
canic. 
Clasped in the arms of the forces Titanic, 
Which rock like a cradle the girth 
Of the ether-hung world; 

— Ode to the Setting Sun 

[70] 



JUNE 13TH 

And in its boughs did close and kindly nest 
The birds, as they within its breast, 
By all its leaves caressed. 

— A Fallen Yew 

JUNE 14TH 

Passed through the golden garden's bars. 
Thou seest the Gardener of the Stars. 

— A Dead Astronomer 

JUNE 15TH 

Who hast with life imbued 
The lion maned in tawny majesty, 
The tiger velvet-barred, 
The stealthy-stepping pard. 
And the lithe panther's flexuous symmetry. 

— Ode to the Setting Sun 

[71] 



JUNE i6th 

Against the red throb of its sunset-heart 
I laid my own to beat, 
And share commingling heat; 
But not by that, by that, was eased my 

human smart. 
In vain my tears were wet on Heaven's grey 

cheek. 
For ah ! we know not what each other says, 

These things and I ; in sound I speak — 
Their sound is but their stir, they speak by 
silences. — xhe Hound of Heaven 

JUNE 17TH 

Herself must with herself be sole compeer. 
Unless the people of her distant sphere 
Some gold migration send to melodise the 
year. —Her Portrait 

[72] 



JUNE i8th 

When the bird quits the cage, 

We set the cage outside, 
With seed and with water, 

And the door wide. 
Haply we may win it so 

Back to abide. —July Fugitive 

JUNE 19TH 

Relume in hanging hedgerows 

The rain-quenched blossom, 
And roses sob their tears out 

On the gale's warm heaving bosom; 

— July Fugitive 

JUNE 20TH 

Tint, Prince Jesus, a 

Dusked eye for Viola! _The Making of Viola 

[73] 



JUNE 2 1ST 

Where is laid the Lord arisen? 
In the light we walk in gloom. 
Though the sun has burst his prison. 
We know not His biding-room. 
Tell us where the Lord sojourneth, 
For we find an empty tomb. 
''Whence He sprung, there He returneth, 
Mystic Sun, — the Virgin's Womb." 

—Assumpta Maria 

JUNE 22ND 

Yet, in this field where the Cross planted 

reigns, 
I know not what strange passion bows my 

head 
To thee, whose great command upon my 

veins 
Proves thee a god for me not dead, not dead 1 

— Ode to the Setting Sun 

[74] 



JUNE 23D 
The hills look over on the South, 
And southward dreams the sea; 
And, with the sea-breeze hand in hand, 
Came innocence and she. Daisy 

JUNE 24TH 
Love, love! your flower of withered dream 
In leaved rhyme lies safe, I deem. 
Sheltered and shut in a nook of rhyme. 
From the reaper man, and his reaper Time. 

— The Poppy 

JUNE 25TH 
Heaven, which man's generations draws. 
Nor deviates into replicas. 
Must of as deep diversity 
In judgement as creation be. 

— Epilogue to ''A Judgement in Heaven' 

[75] 



JUNE 26th 
And when, immortal mortal, droops your 

head, 
And you, the child of deathless song, are 

dead; 
Then, as you search with unaccustomed 

glance 
The ranks of Paradise for my countenance. 
Turn not your tread along the Uranian sod 
Among the bearded counsellors of God; 

— To My Godchild 

JUNE 27TH 
How then shall we lure her back 

From the way she goes? 
For it were a shameful thing, 

Saw we not this comer 

Ere Autumn camp upon the fields 

Red with the rout of Summer. 

— July Fugitive 

[76] 



JUNE 28th 
And bolder now and bolder 
I lean upon that shoulder, 
So dear 
He is and near. 

^:> <^ 
JUNE 29TH 
And with Kis aureole 
The tresses of my soul 
Are blent 
In wished content. 

^^> <:> 
JUNE 30TH 
And being straightly wooed, 
Believes herself the Good 
And Fair 
He seeks in her. 



— Any Saint 



— Any Saint 



— Any Saint 

[77] 



JULY 



JULY 1ST 

Can you tell me where has hid her. 

Pretty Maid July? 

I would swear one day ago 

She passed by, 
I would swear that I do know 
The blue bliss of her eye: —July Fugitive 

JULY 2ND 

Summer set lip to earth's bosom bare, 

And left the flushed print in a poppy there : 

— The Poppy 

JULY 3D 
Like a yawn of fire from the grass it came, 
And the fanning wind puffed it to flapping 
flame. —The Poppy 

[81] 



JULY 4TH 

A berry red, a guileless look, 
A still word, — strings of sand! 
And yet they made my wild, wild heart 
Fly down to her little hand. 

— Daisy 

JULY 5TH 

I am but, my sweet, your foster-lover, 
Knowing well when certain years are over 
You vanish from me to another; 

— The Poppy 

JULY 6th 

Yet I have felt what terrors may consort 
In women's cheeks, the Graces' soft resort; 

— Her Portrait 

[82] 



JULY 7TH 

And spring, and all things that have gone 
from me, 
And that shall never be; 
All vanished hopes, and all most hopeless 
bliss. 
Came with thee to my kiss. 

— A Child's Kiss 

JULY 8th 
The loom which mortal verse affords, 
Out of weak and mortal words, 
Wovest thou thy singing-weed in, 
To a rune of thy far Eden. 

— To a Poet Breaking Silence 

JULY 9TH 

To this, the all of love the stars allow me, 
I dedicate and vow me. 

— Before Her Portrait in Youth 

[83] 



JULY lOTH 

With sacrosanct cajoleries 

And starry treachery of your eyes, 

Tempt us back to Paradise! 

— The After Woman 

JULY iiTH 

She has muddied the day's oozes 

With her petulant feet; 

— July Fugitive 

JULY 12TH 

But (when so sad thou canst not sadder) 
Cry; — and upon thy so sore loss 
Shall shine the traffic of Jacob's ladder 
Pitched betwixt Heaven and Charing Cross. 

— In No Strange Land 

[84] 



JULY 13TH 

She listened with big-lipped surprise, 
Breast-deep 'mid flower and spine; 

Her skin was like a grape, whose veins 
Run snow instead of wine. Daisy 

JULY 14TH 

With burnt mouth red like a lion's it drank 
The blood of the sun as he slaughtered sank, 
And dipped its cup in the purpurate shine 
When the eastern conduits run with wine; 

— The Poppy 

JULY 15TH 
Scoop, young Jesus, for her eyes. 
Wood-browned pools of Paradise — 
Young Jesus, for the eyes. 
For the eyes of Viola. 

— The Making of Viola 

[85] 



JULY i6th 
My soul is quitted of death-neighbouring 

swoon, 
Who shall not slake her immitigable scars 
Until she hear ''My sister!" from the moon, 
And take the kindred kisses of the stars. 

— Ode to the Setting Sun 

JULY 17TH 
Pass the crystalline sea, the Lampads 

seven : — 
Look for me in the nurseries of Heaven. 

— To My Godchild 

JULY i8th 
Little Jesus, wast Thou shy 
Once, and just so small as I? 
And what did it feel like to be 
Out of Heaven, and just like me? 

— Ex Ore Infantium 

[86] 



JULY 19TH 
Dewy buds were interstrown 
Through her tresses hanging down, 
And her feet 
Were most sweet, 
Tinged like sea-stars, rosied brown. 

— A Child's Kiss 

JULY 20TH 
And I deem well why life unshared 
Was ordained me of yore. 

— Poet and Anchorite 

JULY 2 1ST 
So I, in very lowlihead of love, — 

Too shyly reverencing 
To let one thought's light footfall smooth 
Tread near the living, consecrated thing, — 
Treasure me thy cast youth. 

— Before Her Portrait in Youth 

[87] 



JULY 22ND 

In pairing-time, we know, the bird 
Kindles to its deepmost splendour, 

And the tender 
Voice is tenderest in its throat: 
Were its love, forever nigh it, 

Never by it, 

It might keep a vernal note, 

— Poet and Anchorite 

JULY 23D 

Sees the palm and tamarind 

Tangle the tresses of a phantom wind ; — 

A sight like innocence when one has sinned ! 

— The Mirage 
-<:> <:> 

JULY 24TH 

God sets His poems in thy face! 

— To a Poet Breaking Silence 

[88] 



\ 



JULY 25TH 

Thou Perseus' Shield! Wherein I view 

secure 
The mirrored Woman's fateful-fair allure ! 

— The Child'Woman 

JULY 26th 

At the Cross thy station keeping 
With the mournful mother weeping, 
Thou, unto the sinless Son, 

Weepest for thy sinful one. 

— St. Monica 
<:> <:> 

JULY 27TH 

Sleeps she swathed in the flushed Arctic 

Night of the rose? 
Or lie her limbs like Alp-glow 

On the lily's snows? 

— July Fugitive 

[89] 



JULY 28th 

On him the unpetitioned heavens descend, 

Who heaven on earth proposes not for end; 

— A Counsel of Moderation 

JULY 29TH 

Thus do I know her; but for what men call 
Beauty — the loveliness corporeal, 
Its most just praise a thing unproper were 
To singer or to listener, me or her. 

— Her Portrait 

JULY 30TH 

The sunset at its radiant heart 

Had somewhat unconfest: 

The bird was loath of speech, its song 

Half-refluent on its breast. 

And made melodious toyings with 

A note or two at best. —After Her Going 

[90] 



JULY 3 1ST 

It seemed corrival of the world's great prime, 
Made to un-edge the scythe of Time, 
And last with stateliest rhyme. 

— A Fallen Yew 



[91] 



AUGUST 



AUGUST 1ST 

That thou canst not stir a flower 
Without troubling of a star; 

— The Mistress of Vision 
<:> <:> 

AUGUST 2ND 

Time shall reap; but after the reaper 
The world shall glean of me, me the sleeper ! 

— The Poppy 

AUGUST 3D 

Spin, daughter Mary, spin. 
Twirl your wheel with silver din; 
Spin, daughter Mary, spin, 
Spin a tress for Viola. 

— The Making of Viola 

[95] 



AUGUST 4TH 

They say, Earth's beauty seems completest 
To them that on their death-beds rest; 

— The Omen 

AUGUST 5TH 

This poor song that sings of thee. 
This fragile song, is but a curled 
Shell outgathered from thy sea. 
And murmurous still of its nativity. 

— The Mirage 

AUGUST 6th 

The rustle of a robe hath been to me 
The very rattle of love's musketry; 

— Her Portrait 

[96] 



AUGUST 7TH 

Daughter of the ancient Eve 
We know the gifts ye gave — and give. 
Who knows the gifts which you shall give, 
Daughter of the newer Eve? 

— The After Woman 
<:^ <:> 

AUGUST 8th 
Here every eve thou goest down 
Behind the self-same hill, 
Nor ever twice alike go'st down 
Behind the self-same hill; 
Nor like-ways is one flame-sopped flower 
Possessed with glory past its will. 

— To the Sinking Sun 
<^ <::9 

AUGUST 9TH 

O World invisible, we view thee, 
O world intangible, we touch thee, 

— In No Strange Land 

[97] 



AUGUST lOTH 

Her eyes were clear, her eyes were Hope's, 
Wherein did ever come and go 
The sparkle of the fountain drops 
From her sweet soul below. 

— Drearri'Tryst 
-^:> <:> 

AUGUST iiTH 

Her beauty smoothed Earth's furrowed face ! 

— The Daisy 

AUGUST 12TH 

I was heavy with the even, 

When she lit her glimmering tapers 

Round the day's dead sanctities. 

— The Hound of Heaven 

[98] 



AUGUST 13TH 

"Tarry, maid, maid," I bid her; 

But she hastened by. 
Do you know where she has hid her, 

Maid July? 

— July Fugitive 

AUGUST 14TH 

Nature is whole in her least things exprest. 
Nor know we with what scope God builds 
the worm. 

— Correlated Greatness 

AUGUST 15TH 

Sister of the Canticle, 

And thee for God grown marriageable. 

How my desire desired your day, 

— The After Woman 

[99] 



AUGUST i6th 

''Mortals, that behold a Woman, 
Rising 'twixt the Moon and Sun; 
Who am I the heavens assume? an 
All am I, and I am one. 

— Assumpta Maria 

AUGUST 17TH 

Curse on the brutish jargon we inherit, 
Strong but to damn, not memorise, a spirit ! 

— Her Portrait 

AUGUST i8th 

For this firm yew did from the vassal leas, 

And rain and air, its tributaries. 

Its revenues increase. 

And levy impost on the golden sun, 

— A Fallen Yew 

[100] 



AUGUST 19TH 

For grief of perfect fairness, eve 
Could nothing do but smile; 

— After Her Going 

AUGUST 20TH 

If of her virtues you evade the snare, 
Then for her faults you'll fall in love with 
her. 

— Her Portrait 

AUGUST 2 1ST 

What groweth to its height demands no 

higher; 
The limit limits not, but the desire. 

— Epilogue to the Poet's Sitter 

[101] 



AUGUST 22ND 

All which I took from thee I did but take, 

Not for thy harms, 
But just that thou might'st seek it in My 
arms. 

— The Hound of Heaven 

AUGUST 23D 

Too much alike or little captives me, 
For all oppression is captivity. 

— Epilogue to the Poet's Sitter 

<:> <:> 

AUGUST 24TH 

My blood known panic fear, and fled dis- 
mayed. 
Where ladies' eyes have set their ambuscade. 

— Her Portrait 

[102] 



AUGUST 25TH 
Weave, hands angelical, 
Weave a woof of flesh to pall — 
Weave, hands angelical — 
Flesh to pall our Viola. 

— The Making of Viola 
<:^ <:> 

AUGUST 26th 
The fairest things have fleetest end: 
Their scent survives their close, 
But the rose's scent is bitterness 
To him that loved the rose ! ^-^Daisy 

AUGUST 27TH 
No more in the pooled Even 

Wade her rosy feet. 
Dawn-flakes no more plash from them 

To poppies 'mid the wheat. 

— July Fugitive 

[103] 



AUGUST 28th 

The wailful sweetness of the violin 

Floats down the hushed waters of the wind; 

The heart-strings of the throbbing harp 

begin 
To long in aching music. 

— Ode to the Setting Sun 

AUGUST 29TH 

And in your young maiden morn. 
You may scorn. 
But you must be 
Bound and sociate to me; 
With this thread from out the tomb my dead 
hand shall tether thee! 

— A Foretelling of the Child's Husband 

[104] 



AUGUST 30TH 

The sleep-flower sways in the wheat its 

head, 
Heavy with dreams, as that with bread : 
The goodly grain and the sun-flushed 

sleeper 
The reaper reaps, and Time the reaper. 

— The Poppy 

AUGUST 3 1ST 

This morning saw I, fled the shower, 
The earth reclining in a lull of power: 
The heavens, pursuing not their path, 
Lay stretched out naked after bath. 
Or so it seemed ; field, water, tree, were still, 
Nor was there any purpose on the calm- 
browed hill. —Contemplation 

[105] 



SEPTEMBER 



SEPTEMBER isx 

How are the veins of thee, Autumn, laden? 

Umbered juices. 

And pulped oozes 
Pappy out of the cherry-bruises, 

— A Corymbus for Autumn 

SEPTEMBER 2nd 

Its breast was hollowed as the tooth of eld; 
And boys, there creeping unbeheld, 
A laughing moment dwelled. 

Yet they, within its very heart so crept. 
Reached not the heart that courage kept 
With winds and years beswept. 

— A Fallen Yew 
[109] 



SEPTEMBER 30 

I have no thought that I, 
When at last I die, 
Shall reach 
To gain your speech. 

But you, should that be so. 
May very well, I know, 
May well 
To me in hell 

With recognising eyes 
Look from your Paradise — 
"God bless 
Thy hopelessness!" _To the Dead Cardinal 
<:> <:> 

SEPTEMBER 4TH 
Hers is the face whence all should copied be, 
Did God make replicas of such as she ; 

— Her Portrait 

[no] 



SEPTEMBER ^th 

His revelling fingers disentwine 
Leaf, flower, and all, 
And let them fall 
Blossom and all in thy wavering wine. 

— A Corymbus for Autumn 
<^ '<^ 

SEPTEMBER 6th 

The time was far too perfect fair. 
Being but for a while; 
And ah, in me, too happy grief 
Blinded herself with a smile ! 

— After Her Going 

SEPTEMBER yxH 

Still, still I seemed to see her, still 

Look up with soft replies, 

And take the berries with her hand, 

And the love with her lovely eyes. 

— Daisy 

[111] 



SEPTEMBER 8th 

Baby smiled, mother wailed, 
Earthward while the sweetling sailed; 
Mother smiled, baby wailed, 
When to earth came Viola. 

— The Making of Viola 

SEPTEMBER gxH 
And dost Thou like it best, that we 
Should join our hands to pray to Thee? 
I used to think, before I knew. 
The prayer not said unless we do. 

— Ex Ore Infantium 

SEPTEMBER ioth 
My songs have followed you, 
Like birds the summer ; 
Ah ! bring them back to me, 
Swiftly, dear comer I _^ Carrier Song 

[112] 



SEPTEMBER iith 

Go forth; and if it be o'er stony way, 

Old joy can lend what newer grief must 

borrow : 
And it was sweet, and that was yesterday. 
And sweet is sweet, though purchased with 

sorrow. — Envoy 

<:> <:> 

SEPTEMBER i2th 

Teach how the crucifix may be 

Carven from the laurel-tree, 

Fruit of the Hesperides 

Burnish take on Eden-trees, 

The Muses' sacred grove be wet 

With the red dew of Olivet, 

And Sappho lay her burning brows 

In white Cecilia's lap of snows ! 

— To a Poet Breaking Silence 

[113] 



SEPTEMBER 13TH 

Soul, hush these sad numbers, too sad to 

upraise 
In hymning bright Sylvia, unlearn'd in such 
ways! 
Our mournful moods lay we away. 
And prank our thoughts in holiday, 
For syllabling to Sylvia; 

— A Child's Kiss 

SEPTEMBER 14TH 

Ay, Mother! Mother! 
What is this Man, thy darling kissed and 

cuffed, 
Thou lustingly engender'st. 
To sweat, and make his brag, and rot. 
Crowned with all honour and shamefulness? 

— An Anthem of Earth 

[114] 



SEPTEMBER 15TH 
What of her silence, that outsweetens 

speech ? 
What of her thoughts, high marks for mine 

own thoughts to reach ? — Her Portrait 

SEPTEMBER i6th 
Up vistaed hopes I sped; 
And shot, precipitated 
Adown Titanic glooms of chasmed fears, 
From those strong Feet that followed, fol- 
lowed after. -The Hound of Heaven 

SEPTEMBER lyxH 

The Summer looks out from her brazen 

tower. 

Through the flashing bars of July, 

Waiting thy ripened golden shower; 

— A Corymbus for Autumn 

[115] 



SEPTEMBER i8th 
The red sun, 
A bubble of fire, drops slowly toward the 

hill. 
While one bird prattles that the day is done. 

— Ode to the Setting Sun 

SEPTEMBER igxH 
Fling from thine ear the burning curls, and 

hark 
A song thou hast not heard in Northern day; 
For Rome too daring, and for Greece too 

dark. 
Sweet with wild wings that pass, that pass 

away! —Ode to the Setting Sun 

SEPTEMBER 20th 
Taking with peace, lacking with thankful- 
ness. — A Counsel of Moderation 

[116] 



SEPTEMBER 21st 

What dainty guiles and treacheries caught 
From artful prompting of love's artless 

thought 
Her lowly loveliness teach her to adorn, 
When thy plumes shiver against the con- 
scious gates of morn! —Orient Ode 

SEPTEMBER 22nd 

But He a little hath 
Declined His stately path 
And my 
Feet set more high; 

That the slack arm may reach 
His shoulder, and faint speech 
Stir 
His unwithering hair. 

— Any Saint 

[117] 



SEPTEMBER 230 
And look the ways exhale some precious 

odours. 
And set ye all about wild-breathing spice, 
Most fit for Paradise. 

— From the Night of Forebeing 

SEPTEMBER 24TH 
A maid too easily 
Conceits herself to be 
Those things 
Her lover sings; _Any Saint 

SEPTEMBER 25TH 

Naked I wait Thy love's uplifted stroke ! 

My harness piece by piece Thou hast hewn 

from me, 

And smitten me to my knee; 

I am defenceless utterly. 

— The Hound of Heaven 

[118] 



SEPTEMBER 26th 
I the Hostel of the Sun am; 
He the Lamb, and I the Fold. 

— Assumpta Maria 

SEPTEMBER 27TH 
Memnonian lips ! 
Smitten with singing from thy mother's east, 
And murmurous with music not their own : 
Nay, the lips flexile, while the mind alone 
A passionless statue stands. 

— To a Child Heard Repeating Her Mother s 

Verses 

SEPTEMBER 28th 
Bid thou the cloud of war to cease 
Which ever round thy wide-girt empery 
Fumes, like to smoke about a burning brand, 

%l> xl^ ^l> v)^ St^ xt^ xi^ xt^ 

And let this day hear only peaceful din. 

— The Victorian Ode 

[119] 



SEPTEMBER 29TH 
From nightly towers 

He dogs the secret footsteps of the heavens, 
Sifts in his hands the stars, weighs them as 

gold-dust. 
And yet is he successive unto nothing 
But patrimony of a little mould. 
And entail of four planks. 

— An Anthem of Earth 
^^^ <:> 

SEPTEMBER 30TH 
The floods lift up, lift up their voice, 
With many-watered noise! 
Down the centuries fall those sweet 
Sobbing waters to our feet. 
And our laden air still keeps 
Murmur of a Saint that weeps. 

— St. Monica 

[120] 



OCTOBER 



OCTOBER 1ST 

Hearken, my chant, — 'tis 
As a Bacchante's, 

A grape-spurt, a vine-splash, a tossed tress, 
flown vaunt 'tis I 

— A Corymbus for Autumn 
<::> <:> 

OCTOBER 2ND 

''Naught shelters thee, who wilt not shelter 

^^^' — The Hound of Heaven 

OCTOBER 3D 

"What place doth He ye serve 
For such sad spirit reserve, — 

Given, 
In dark lieu of Heaven, 

— To the Dead Cardinal 

[123] 



OCTOBER 4TH 

The wassailous heart of the Year is thine! 
His Bacchic fingers disentwine 

His coronal 

At thy festival; 

— A Corymbus for Autumn 

OCTOBER 5TH 

I reach back through the days 
A trothed hand to the dead the last trump 
shall not raise. 

— Before Her Portrait in Youth 

OCTOBER 6th 

I laughed in the morning's eyes. 
I triumphed and I saddened with all 
weather. 
Heaven and I wept together, 

— The Hound of Heaven 

[124] 



OCTOBER 7TH 

Suffer my singing, 
Gipsy of Seasons, ere thou go winging; 
Ere Winter throws 
His slaking snows 
In thy f easting-flagon's impurpurate glows! 

— A Corymbus for Autumn 

OCTOBER 8th 

What said'st thou. Astronomer, 
When thou did'st discover her? 
When thy hand its tube let fall, 
Thou found'st the fairest star of all ! 

— A Dead Astronomer 

OCTOBER 9TH 

The butterfly sunset claps its wings 

With flitter alit on the swinging blossom, 

— A Corymbus for Autumn 

[125] 



OCTOBER lOTH 

What wonder in such things? 
If angels have hereditary wings, 
If not by Salic law is handed down 

The poet's crown, 
To thee, born in the purple of the throne, 

The laurel must belong: 

— To a Child Heard Repeating Her Mother s 

Verses 

OCTOBER iiTH 

What think we of thy soul? 

Which has no parts, and cannot grow, 

Unfurled not from an embryo; 

— The Child-Woman 

OCTOBER 12TH 

Learn from fears to vanquish fears; 

— The Mistress of Vision 

[126] 



OCTOBER 13TH 

Thou whisperest in the Moon's white ear, 

And she does whisper into mine, — 

By night together, I and she — 

With her virgin voice divine. 

The things I cannot half so sweetly tell 

As she can sweetly speak, I sweetly hear. 

— Orient Ode 

OCTOBER 14TH 
''And is thy earth so marred, 
Shattered in shard on shard? 
Lo, all things fly thee, for thou fliest Me !" 

— The Hound of Heaven 

OCTOBER 15TH 
Tanned maiden! with cheeks like apples 

russet. 
And breast a brown agaric faint-flushing at 

tiPj * — A Corymbus for Autumn 

[127] 



OCTOBER i6th 
Sleek the tumbled waters out 

For her travelled limbs; 
Strew and smooth blue night thereon, 

There will — O not doubt her! — 
The lovely sleepy lady lie, 

With all her stars about her ! 

— July Fugitive 

OCTOBER 17TH 
His shoulder did I hold, 
Too high that I, o'er bold 
Weak one. 
Should lean thereon. ^^y Saint 

OCTOBER i8th 
Happiness is the shadow of things past. 
Which fools still take for that which is to be ! 
And not all foolishly. 

— From the Night of Forebeing 

[128] 



OCTOBER 19TH 
Mary, for thy sinner, see, 
To her Sinless mourns with thee : 
Could that Son the son not heed. 
For whom two such mothers plead? 

—-5^0 Monica 

OCTOBER 20TH 

Here I shake off 
The bur o' the world, man's congregation 

shun. 
And to the antique order of the dead 
I take the tongueless vows: my cell is set 
Here in thy bosom.; my little trouble is ended 
In a little peace. _An Anthem of Earth 

OCTOBER 2 1ST 
Whom wilt thou find to love ignoble thee 
Save Me, save only Me? 

— The Hound of Heaven 

[129] 



OCTOBER 22ND 

Still, mighty Season, do I see't, 
Thy sway is still majestical! 
Thou hold'st of God, by title sure, 
Thine indefeasible investiture, 

— A Corymbus for Autumn 

OCTOBER 23D 

The after-even ! Ah, did I walk. 
Indeed, in her or even? 
For nothing of me or around 
But absent She did leaven, 

— After Her Going 

OCTOBER 24TH 

'Tis not the continent, but the contained, 
That pleasaunce makes or prison, loose or 

chained. 

— Epilogue to the Feet's Sitter 

[130] 



OCTOBER 25TH 

Smile, sweet baby, smile. 
For you will have weeping- while ; 
Native in your Heaven is smile, — 
But your weeping, Viola? 

— The Making of Viola 

OCTOBER 26th 

And howso thou and I may be disjoint. 
Yet still my falcon spirit makes her point 

Over the covert where 
Thou, sweetest quarry, hast put in from her ! 

— A Child's Kiss 

OCTOBER 27TH 

For, if in Eden as on earth are we, 
I sure shall keep a younger company : 

— To My Godchild 

[131] 



OCTOBER 28th 

Therefore must my song-bower lone be. 

That my tone be 
Fresh with dewy pain alway; 

— Poet and Anchorite 

OCTOBER 29TH 

Make heavenly trespass; — ay, press in 
Where faint the fledge-foot seraphin, 

— The After Woman 

OCTOBER 30TH 

Thou swing'st the hammers of my forge; 
As the innocent moon, that nothing does but 

shine. 
Moves all the labouring surges of the world. 

— The Mirage 

[132] 



OCTOBER 3 1ST 

"When thy seeing blindeth thee 

To what thy fellow-mortals see; 

When their sight to thee is sightless; 

Their living, death; their light, most light- 
less; 

Search no more — 

Pass the gates of Luthany, tread the region 
Elenore/' ^The Mistress of Vision 



[133] 



NOVEMBER 



NOVEMBER isx 
Camp of Angels! Well we even 
Of this thing may doubtful be, — 
If thou art assumed to Heaven, 
Or is Heaven assumed to thee! 

— Assumpta Maria 

NOVEMBER 2nd 

The sandy glass hence bear — 
Antique remembrancer; 

My veins 
Do spare its pains. _To the Dead Cardinal 

NOVEMBER 3D 

To wisest moralists 'tis but given 
To work rough border-law of Heaven, 

— Epilogue to ''A Judgement in Heaven' 

[137] 



NOVEMBER 4TH 

There is no expeditious road 

To pack and label men for God, 

And save them by the barrel-load. 

Some may perchance, with strange surprise, 

Have blundered into Paradise. 

— Epilogue to ''A Judgement in Heaven' 

NO\^EMBER 5TH 

'T am Daniel's mystic Mountain, 
WTience the mighty stone was rolled; 
I am the four Rivers' fountain, 
Watering Paradise of old; 

— Assumpta Maria 

NO^^EMBER 6th 
Or who be tardy to His call 
In your accents augural? 

— The After Woman 

[138] 



NOVEMBER jth 

I fled Him, down the nights and down the 

days; 
I fled Him, down the arches of the years; 
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways 
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears 
I hid from Him, and under running laughter. 

— The Hound of Heaven 

NOVEMBER 8th 

''When thy song is shield and mirror 
To the fair snake-curled Pain, 
Where thou dar'st affront her terror 
That on her thou may'st attain 
Persean conquest ; seek no more, 
O seek no more! 

Pass the gates of Luthany, tread the region 
Jj^lenore. — jj^^ Mistress of Vision 

[139] 



NOVEMBER gxH 

O Tree of many branches! One thou hast 
Thou barest not, but grafted'st on thee. 

Now, 
Should all men's thunders break on thee, and 

leave 
Thee reft of bough and blossom, that one 

branch 
Shall cling to thee, my Father, Brother, 

Friend, 
Shall cling to thee, until the end of end! 

— Lines to W. M. 

NOVEMBER ioth 

Whence your smiles, we know, but ah ! 
Whence your weeping, Viola? — 
Our first gift to you is a 
Gift of tears, my Viola! 

— The Making of Viola 
[140] 



NOVEMBER iith 

To thine own shape 

Thou round'st the chrysolite of the grape, 

Bind'st thy gold lightnings in his veins; 

Thou storest the white garners of the rains. 

— Orient Ode 

NOVEMBER i2th 

Such a watered dream has tarried 
Trembling on my desert arid; 
Even so 
Its lovely gleamings 

Seemings show 
Of things not seeming; 
And I gaze, 
Knowing that, beyond my ways, 

Verily 
All these are, for these are She. 

— The Mirage 

[141] 



NOVEMBER 13TH 
Those Eyes my weak gaze shuns, 
Which to the suns are Suns, 
Did 
Not affray your lid. 

— To the Dead Cardinal 
<:> <:> 

NOVEMBER 14TH 
Therefore my spirit clings 
Heavefi's porter by the wings, 

And holds 
Its gated golds _To the Dead Cardinal 

<:> <^ 

NOVEMBER 15™ 

Froth the veins of thee, wild, wild maiden ! 
With hair that musters 
In globed clusters. 
In tumbling clusters, like swarthy grapes. 
Round thy brow and thine ears o'ershaden; 

— A Corymbus for Autumn 
[142] 



NOVEMBER i6th 
With the burning darkness of eyes like 
pansies, 
Like velvet pansies 
Wherethrough escapes 
The splendid night of thy conflagrate 
fancies; — ^ Corymbus for Autumn 

o <:> 
NOVEMBER ijth 
It is the falling acorn buds the tree, 
The falling rain that bears the greenery, 
The fern-plants moulder when the ferns 

arise. 
For there is nothing lives but something dies, 

— Ode to the Setting Sun 

<:> o 

NOVEMBER i8th 

For all the past, read true, is prophecy, 

— From the Night of Forebeing 

[143] 



NOVEMBER igxH 
How hast thou merited — 
Of all man's clotted clay the dingiest clot? 

Alack, thou knowest not 
How little worthy of any love thou art! 

— The Hound of Heaven 
<::> <:^ 

NOVEMBER 2oth 
"Lo, though suns may rise and set, but 

crosses stay, 
I leave thee ever," saith she, ''light of cheer." 
'Tis so : yon sky still thinks upon the Day, 
And showers aerial blossoms on his bier. 

— Ode to the Setting Sun 

NOVEMBER iisx 
O flowers ! O grasses ! be but once 
The grass and flower of yester-eve ! 

— To the Sinking Sun 

[144] 



NOVEMBER 22nd 

Ever I knew me Beauty's eremite, 
In antre of this lowly body set, 
Girt with a thirsty solitude of soul. 
Natheless I not forget 
How I have, even as the anchorite, 

I too, imperishing essences that 
console. —Poet and Anchorite 

NOVEMBER 23D 

Tarry awhile, lean Earth, for thou shalt 
drink 
Even till thy dull throat sicken. 
The draught thou grow'st most fat on; 

hear'st thou not 
The world's knives bickering in their 
sheaths? _An Anthem of Earth 

[145] 



NOVEMBER 24TH 
Yea, in the night, my Soul, my daughter, 
Cry — clinging Heaven by the hems; 
And lo, Christ walking on the water, 
Not of Genesareth, but the Thames! 

— ''In No Strange Land'' 

NO^ EMBER 25TH 
Oh, there were flowers in Storrington 

On the turf and on the spray; 
But the sweetest flower on Sussex hills 

Was the Daisy-flower that day ! Daisy 

^^ <::> 
NOVEMBER 26th 
Who art thyself a thing 
Of whim and wavering; 
Free 
When His wings pen thee; 

— Any Saint 

[146] 



NOVEMBER 27TH 

I will not think thy sovereignty begun 

But with the shepherd Sun 
That washes in the sea the stars' gold fleeces ; 

Or that with Day it ceases, 
Who sets his burning lips to the salt brine, 

And purples it to wine; 

— A Corymbus for Autumn 

NOVEMBER 28th 

One unforgotten day, 

As a sick child waking sees 

Wide-eyed daisies 
Gazing on it from its hand, 
Slipped there for its dear amazes; 
So between thy father's knees 

I saw thee stand, _The Omen 

[147] 



NOVEMBER 29TH 

There was no change in her sweet eyes 
Since last I saw those sweet eyes shine; 
There was no change in her deep heart 
Since last that deep heart knocked at mine. 

— Dream-Tryst 

NOVEMBER 30TH 

Thou whose young sex is yet but in thy 
soul ; — 
As hoarded in the vine 
Hang the gold skins of undelirious wine, 
As air sleeps, till it toss its limbs in breeze : — 

— The Child-Woman 



[148] 



DECEMBER 



DECEMBER isx 
What if thine earth be blear and bleak of 
hue? 
Still, still the skies are sweet! 

— A Corymhus for Autumn 

DECEMBER 2d 
'Tierce thy heart to find the key; 
With thee take 
Only what none else would keep" ; 

— The Mistress of Vision 
<^ <^ 

DECEMBER 30 

He the sweet Sales, of whom we scarcely 

ken 
How God he could love more, he so loved 

men; _To My Godchild 

[151] 



DECEMBER 4TH 

Lo, in the sanctuaried East, 
Day, a dedicated priest 
In all his robes pontifical exprest, 
Lifteth slowly, lifteth sweetly. 
From out its Orient tabernacle drawn, 
Yon orbed sacrament confest 
Which sprinkles benediction through the 
dawn; _OrientOde 

<^ ^^ 

DECEMBER 5TH 

They fondly thought to err from God, 
Nor knew the circle that they trod; 
And, wandering all the night about. 
Found them at morn where they set out. 
Death dawned ; Heaven lay in prospect wide : 
Lo! they were standing by His side! 

— Epilogue to "/4 Judgement in Heaven' 

[152] 



DECEMBER 6th 
Didst Thou kneel at night to pray, 
And didst Thou join Thy hands, this way? 
And did they tire sometimes, being young, 
And make the prayer seem very long? 

— Ex Ore Infantium 

DECEMBER yxH 
Love ! / fall into the claws of Time : 
But lasts with a leaved rhyme 
All that the world of me esteems — 
My withered dreams, my withered dreams. 

— The Poppy 

DECEMBER 8th 
In all I work, my hand includeth thine; 
Thou rushest down in every stream 
Whose passion frets my spirit's deepening 
gorge; 

— The Mirage 

[153] 



DECEMBER qth 
Fair are the soul's uncrisped calms, indeed, 
Endiapered with many a spiritual fomi 
Of blosmy-tinctured weed; 

— Poet and Anchorite 

DECEMBER ioth 
Whereso your angel is, 
My angel goeth; 
I am left guardianless. 
Paradise knowethi 

— A Carrier Song 

DECEMBER iith 

" — Even the kisses of the just 

Go down not unresurgent to the dust. 

Yea, not a kiss which I have given 

But shall triumph upon my lips in heaven, 

Or cling a shameful fungus there in hell. 

— Orient Ode 

[154] 



DECEMBER 12th 
Break, elemental children, break ye loose 
From the strict frosty rule 
Of grey-beard Winter's school. 

— From the Night of Forebeing 
<:> <:> 

DECEMBER 13TH 
Fashioned so purely, 
Fragilely, surely, 
From what Paradisal 
Imagineless metal, 
Too costly for cost? 

— To a Snozuflake 

DECEMBER 14TH 
And sensible, as her blown locks were, 
Beyond the precincts of her form 
I felt the woman flow from her — 
A calm of intempestuous storm. 

— Grace of the Way 

[155] 



DECEMBER 15TH 

Seraphim, 

Her to hymn, 

Might leave their portals; 

And at my feet learn 

The harping of mortals! 

— A Carrier Song 

DECEMBER i6th 

Oh, this Medusa-pleasure with her stings ! 
This essence of all suffering, which is joy! 
I am not thankless for the spell it brings. 
Though tears must be told down for the 
charmed toy. _ode to the Setting Sun 
<:> o 
DECEMBER 17TH 

And the gorgon-head of the Winter shown 
To stiffen the gazing earth as stone. 

— A Corymbus for Autumn 

£156] 



DECEMBER i8th 

Good friend, 

I pray thee send 

Some high gold embassage 

To teach my unripe age. 

Tell! 

Lest my feet walk hell. 

— To the Dead Cardinal 

DECEMBER 19TH 
"Wherefore should any set thee love apart? 
Seeing none but I makes much of naught" 

(He said), 
''And human love needs human meriting" : 

— The Hound of Heaven 
<::> <^ 

DECEMBER 20th 

Go, songs, for ended is our brief, sweet play; 

— Envoy 

[157] 



DECEMBER 2ist 

And the blackbird held his lutany, 
All fragrant-through with bliss ; 
And all things stilled were as a maid 

Sweet with a single kiss. 

— After Her Going 
^^> '^^^ 

DECEMBER 22nd 

My restless wings, that beat the whole world 

through, 
Flag on the confines of the sun and you; 
And find the human pale remoter of the two. 

— Epilogue to the Poet's Sitter 

DECEMBER 230 

In his pulse mine shall thrill; 
And the quick heart shall quicken from the 
heart that's still. 
— A Foretelling of the Child's Husband 

[158] 



DECEMBER 24TH 

Since you have waned from us. 

Fairest of women! 

I am a darkened cage 

Song cannot hymn in. 

— A Carrier Song 

DECEMBER 25TH 
See how there 
The cowled Night 

Kneels on the Eastern sanctuary-stair. 
What is this feel of incense everywhere? 

— A Corymhus for Autumn 

DECEMBER 26th 

Didst Thou sometimes think of there^ 

And ask where all the angels were? 

I should think that I would cry 

For my house all made of sky ; 

— E;k Ore Infantium 

[159] 



DECEMBER 27TH 

To the Sun, stranger, surely you belong. 
Giver of golden days and golden song; 

— To My Godchild 

DECEMBER 28th 

Child-angels, from your wings 
Fall the roseal hoverings. 
Child-angels, from your wings, 
On the cheeks of Viola. 

— The Making of Viola 

<:> «<:> 
DECEMBER 29TH 

And his smile, as nymphs from their laving 

meres. 
Trembled up from a bath of tears ; 

— The Poppy 

[160] 



DECEMBER 30TH 

Deaf is he to world's tongue; 
He scometh for his song 

The loud 
Shouts of the crowd; 

— To the Dead Cardinal 

DECEMBER 31ST 

Alpha and Omega, sadness and mirth, 

The springing music, and its wasting 

breath — 
The fairest things in life are Death and Birth, 

— Ode to the Setting Sun 



[161] 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 

Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: May 2009 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN COLLECTIONS PRESERVATION 

111 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724) 779-2111 



